Now that you have become acquainted with your neighborhood through your documentary project, the task in the second half of the semester is writing a research paper about your neighborhood. In this project, you will use analyze primary source material (statistical data or interviews or participant observation or newspaper articles or some combination of the above) to answer one of two questions:
1. Given the material you have read in the class on theories of assimilation, multiculturalism, ethnic competition and conflict, etc., how do ethnically, culturally or economically heterogeneous residents interact in your neighborhood and how does this differ from another neighborhood that you will analyze? What factors have produced the difference between the neighborhoods?
Examples of papers that would address this question:
- Group X argues that their neighborhood, Bro-Ho, is more of a mosaic than a melting pot. The European supermodels and the American frat boys who populate the neighborhood don’t interact, either on the street or in local public and private institutions. They use a combination of statistics on local public schools and participant observation focusing on local public spaces, churches, restaurants and stores to support this argument. They then contrast the Bro-Ho mosaic with the nearby melting pot of Pho-Ho, where supermodels hang out with photographers and indulge in their shared love of Vietnamese soup. They argue that spatial factors (rather than economic or cultural) produce segregation in the case of Bro-Ho, as a major roadway separates the area where the supermodels live from the area where the frat boys live, and each side has its own subway stop, producing little reason to cross over.
- Group Y argues that gentrification in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Greenburghwick has produced a monolithic community mostly dominated by men with ridiculously large beards who spend their days perfecting artisanal chocolate recipes and making pointlessly ironic pop cultural references to each other. In contrast, they argue, the Queens neighborhood of Williamshook Heights has gentrified, but gentrification has produced a stable mix of chocolate makers and preexisting residents. They argue that historical economic differences between the two neighborhoods explain this difference.
2. [The option for people who are sick of metaphors and melting pots…] Choose a social, political or economic problem that your neighborhood is either struggling with, or has faced successfully. Analyze the problem, identifying the factors that have led to the outcome you see in your neighborhood, comparing your neighborhood to another neighborhood. Although racial, ethnic or economic heterogeneity may not play the primary role in this analysis, it should at least be considered and addressed in some way.
An example of a paper that would address this question.
- Group Z shows that [low educational achievement / street crime / human trafficking / environmental pollution / asthma rates] is a particularly important issue facing their neighborhood, Upper West Bed-Stuy. They suggest a number of factors that may explain why the neighborhood has struggled with this problem, including the low socioeconomic status of residents, their lack of political power, and the ethnic diversity of the neighborhood. But eventually they argue that the neighborhood’s isolation from economically valuable areas explains the issue, making a comparison to a similar neighborhood in a more advantageous location.
